Spring Break

Yesterday turned out to be a beautiful Florida winter day. Mid 80's, sunny with some clouds and good ol' humidity. We decided to take the kayak's out and see what we could find. I figured it out on Google Earth that we paddled 5 3/4 miles. We went all the way out to the Gulf of Mexico, came back into the harbor and circled around the island of San Carlos. Didn't find anything exciting but it felt good to be out on the water again. When we got back to RH it felt like our stomach was eating itself we were so hungry. Next time take some snacks! After eating some left over pizza we decided to head to the beach. The problem they have here in Fort Myers Beach is there is a two lane bridge to get into the beach area. Once you are over, there is not much room for all those cars. The line to go over the bridge is about 2 miles and you sit and wait and wait. Hey, lets ride our bikes. We still wanted to have the comfort of our big beach chairs, umbrella and stuff. Thanks to the knots that we learned while aboard Magic, we quickly tied together two chairs and umbrella. Strapped it all to my back and off we went on the bikes. I was afraid I would take someones head off because the umbrella was across my back sticking out the sides. I must have looked like a Transformer of some kind.
I knew it was Spring Break but didn't expect to see that many people on the beach when we got there. All you could see was people everywhere. There was no where to set up camp. We had to walk a little ways down along the beach and found a few yards of real estate that happened to be at this bar. I have to admit it was fun to sit there and just watch all the people walking by. Every size and shape wearing two piece, one piece, what ever was laying on the floor that morning and the guys with their shorts falling off their hips trying to look cool. Oh, did I mention we sat in a bar area? Well sure, I'll have a cold beverage. We stayed there until 6 and decided to head back while there was still plenty of light.

Our last stop in the Bahamas finds us back in Marsh Harbor. After being out for 12 days and hitting all these different islands we are filled with memories and pictures. Here is a map of the places we visited. All that is left to do is to clean the boat, do some laundry and get instructions on how to pack and store everything when Reta and I leave in a week. Deb and Charlie were leaving us in a couple of days. Our first day back we hit the laundry mat to get some much needed clean cloths and walk around downtown to see what all is there. That evening, Deb prepared a terrific "Last Supper" and we ate out on the deck looking at another gorgeous sunset. A short walk later, on the dock, we found dessert at the restaurant Curly Tails. While we were sitting outside enjoying our spoon filled calories, we remembered that there was a full eclipse happening. We looked up and there she was. A full moon but half of the moon was covered up. What a show. We ended back on the boat and just laying there, staring up at this magic show of hide the big white ball. The next morning we awoke to heavy rain that quickly cleared up. With a few last minute instructions from the Captain they were off and Reta and I stood alone on Magic. Time to explore Marsh Harbor.

That night there was a huge celebration that the Bahamians celebrate called Junkanoo. It is like carnival. They dress up in beautiful costumes and march down the streets playing music and dancing. It was supposed to start at 6 but remember this is island time! It finally started at 9 but well worth the wait. The kids come out first followed by the adults. We heard it finally finished around 1 in the morning. We were long gone by then. The following day we jumped in the dinghy, which I was the Captain of finally, and tied up at this restaurant called Jib Room. After a short walk we were on the Atlantic side of the island on our own little beach with a reef just off the shore about 100 yards. We snorkeled all morning at Mermaid Reef and when we would get tired or cold just swim back to shore and lay out for a little while. Great little reef to explore. There were Star fish about the size of a serving platter. I have never seen them that big before. My guess about 18 to 24 inches across. After working up a serious appetite we walked back to the Jib Room and had a late lunch. Nothing left to do but hang out on the boat for, you guessed it, another sunset.

Treasure Cay

Two people have been brave enough to comment on their score playing the World Game. (located at the very bottom of this page) Congrats, so far, to Rico for getting to level 10. The big stumbling block for me is the African countries. No clue.


Personal Note:
I want to send my fellow team-mates a "shout out" because last night, Tuesday, was the start of their new volleyball season. I have been playing with these friends for many many years. I will truly miss playing and hanging out afterwards. Also, thanks for the team name that you picked this time, "Road Hazard". Means a lot to me and I will be checking out the results on line. By the way, if I'm listed as a sub, my shirt size is XL. When you win, you can all sign a shirt and send it to me.


The weather here in south Florida has been warm and cloudy. We had some passing showers yesterday so it limited our outdoor activities. Good day to run more errands and schedule the maintenance on Road Hazard at the local "Camping World". We plan on dropping of RH next Monday and driving over to Sanibel Island to spend the night at a hotel. A friend and his family from Baltimore will be in Sanibel for a few days. It will give us a chance to catch up with them and celebrate St. Patty's day together.


After running around most of the day we got back to RH and I decided to take care of a few things around the outside. It was all fine until I started to find myself itching all over. By then it was too late. The famous "No See Um's" had gotten me. These little guys are really small, like the size of the point of a pencil, but all teeth. Don't know if they suck blood but they do enjoy biting. Then, throw in a few mosquito's just for good measure. By the time I made it back inside my arms and legs looked like pink cottage cheese with all the little bumps. Now I know why everyone has screened in porches and swimming pools on the west coast of Florida. How do the stocks for "Off" look? I'll be buying it by the gallon and applying it to myself like I'm basting a turkey.


Since I couldn't go out and play I had some idle time on my hands. I took this picture Tuesday and decided to play around with it in Photo shop. Changed the texture of the picture and added a few headlines. It just looked like these pelicans were posing for me.

It swear it looks like one has his head turned to listen, the other has hidden his eyes and the third, I swear, looks like he is smiling at me!

I have to tell you that Monday, an hour before sunset, we were walking along the beach. Hand in hand and feeling the last bit of rays warming our faces. Our romantic walk was interrupted by all this commotion in the waves. We were amazed to watch these dolphins swim very close to shore. There was probably five of them and they would swim in circles and all of a sudden lunge toward shore. They were fishing and trapping these fish on the shallow water. It was incredible. I tried to take pictures but all you see are fin's sticking out of the water. People were lined up along the shore as these dolphins would fish in one area and move a little ways down and do it again.

Our next stop in the beautiful Abaco's took us from Green Turtle Cay further north to Manjack Cay to try and find another snorkeling site. This island is uninhabited but has coral reefs on the Atlantic side or northern side. We dropped anchor in a cove and set off to explore. There were two sunken barges that were just a rust pile of twisted metal but you could still make out the outline of a boat. The back end of the cove was very shallow but had an opening to another cove that eventually led out to the Atlantic side. There was so much life in this area. Very few fish but these jelly fish looking things and star fish were everywhere. I picked up on starfish that was the size of a dinner plate. (Sorry, no pictures from this area since I don't have a water proof camera.) We explored the area and decided to head over to Treasure Cay before another storm came through. Treasure Cay has a very nice resort and is a popular vacation place for many people. It is part of the big main island of Abaco and surrounded by the little islands we have been visiting. There are also many power boats in this area. It's in close proximity to the US so they come over and vacation here. We dropped anchor out in the harbor and went into the resort that night for a well deserved steak dinner. I even had myself a Strawberry Margarita. Go ahead and laugh but it tasted terrific! The next day we spent the day on the white sandy beach. Reta and I went for a walk along the beach and there was a small sea turtle that was about 5 feet from shore just swimming along. Remember that there are no waves on this beach because it is protected from the Atlantic. This little guy was just out to explore. This was our last stop before we headed back to our original port, Marsh Harbor. I think you'll agree that Treasure Cay is paradise. Check it out!

Test your knowledge

With all this travel I attached a game at the very bottom of this page. Scroll, scroll and keep scrolling until you find the game. Test your knowledge about the world. Reta has reached level 7 with my best being 5. Leave comments to let me know what you scored! Good luck.

Green Turtle Cay

This blog was published while sitting in our new location - Fort Myers Beach. We arrived here after weathering the big storm. Last week, you might remember in the news, there was a couple of tornado's that came through this area. We were only a couple of hours away. Friday night we went to bed with tornado warnings all around us. It was our first experience with the violent Florida weather. We had our emergency package at the ready, just in case. Cloths, shoes, money, documents and keys were left by the front door in case we needed to run out in a hurry. Thankfully, nothing happened in our area.
Fort Myers Beach is a much different scene than Naples. This is a much younger crowd and with the start of Spring Break the area is pretty full. Bars/Restaurants right on the beach, shops lining both sides of the street and people everywhere. We are 1 mile from the beach in this campground. They really pack them into this place. We are fortunate that our site has a little more space than some of the others. It's the closest campground to the beach. Nice walk or quick bike ride in. It works out better because parking at the beach is a premium. We are on the bay so we can still drop the kayaks in the water just a few steps from Road Hazard. We are here until next Monday.

Our next stop in beautiful Bahamas is Green Turtle Cay. The plan was to drop anchor in the harbor but upon arrival the entrance to the harbor looked more like a maze. The entrance to the harbor was also very shallow. Not wanting to leave more paint from the hull behind, we dropped anchor outside of the harbor, unprotected. After doing the necessary procedures for securing the boat, we jumped in the dingy and went off to explore and eat something. We were starving. After walking around the island and finding everything closed, because it was Sunday, we jumped back into the dinghy and went off to another area of the island where we knew there was a resort. We only found a bar and decided to stay and chat with the bartender, Debbie, who was a delight.
Back on the boat we settled in for another beautiful sunset.

Tuffy is the best

Finally found a place to get the oil changed in the Pick up. Tuffy. It cost us $12 for an oil change plus tire rotation. Can you believe that? I thought for that price they wouldn't put oil back in but I watched the whole thing. Got that out of the way. Good for another 3,000 miles.

Naples will be home for another couple of days while we wait for a site to open in Fort Myers Beach. This Saturday we will drive the 45 minutes and stay in Fort Myers Beach for a week. Once we are there it will be time for Road Hazard to get some maintenance done. It also helps that we are only a few miles from the beach and we can work on our tan some more.



On to the Bahamas!

After we left Sandy Cay we continued north to Man-O-War. Of all the islands, this one seems to have very few foreigners living on it. Another interesting fact about this island is that it is dry. By dry, I don't mean that there isn't any water or that people have a "dry" sense of humor. I mean, dry as in NO ALCOHOL. There is one restaurant and one ice cream parlor. A couple of grocery places and instead of Starbucks on every other street corner they have church's. Turn a corner and there is another. The reason we came here was for a School Fair that was taking place the following day. People from all over were coming to bid on items, sell their wares, eat from the many booths and meet up with old friends. The next day, while on our walk we came across this road sign that read "Queens Highway". This is a major road that dissects the island from north to south. It is wide enough for two golf carts to pass each other. This is their highway. Of course if you are walking on it keep your eyes open for fast moving carts. After walking around the island we made it to the fair. It certainly worked up an appetite and we were rewarded to find tons of food for sale. Not knowing, we each bought a plate. Only afterwards did we realize that each plate could feed a family. The portions were huge. We have leftovers! The next morning we left Man-O-War behind in our wake as we made waves heading further north.
It is interesting to see that I only took a few pictures while at Man-O-War. I guess there really wasn't anything that took my breath away like the other places.

Out of shape!

I was talking to a friend yesterday and she mentioned that by looking at the pictures I had put on a little weight. OK, I knew I had been eating and drinking a lot. Then, last night, I talked to someone else and they happened to mention the same thing. Thanks. Because of that I woke up this morning and Reta and I went out for a jog. Talk about being out of shape. I ran 5 blocks and it felt like this pump in my chest was going to burst. Between gasps for air I managed to tell Reta, who by the way was running gracefully like a gazelle, that I needed to stop because I was so out of shape. Hopefully I will be able to fit a workout into my busy schedule everyday. We'll see how it goes.
The weather here in Naples has been hot but overcast everyday. Late evening we get a rainstorm but nothing that lasts too long. Maybe today we will venture over to downtown Naples. For those of you that know this area, we are going to walk down 5th Street. It's a very upscale area with expensive shops. Think of Rodeo Drive in California. I think the pick up will fit right in.

On to our adventures in the Bahamas. Our next stop that we took after Hopetown Harbor was an little island on the lower east side of Abaco called Lynyard Cay. There is nothing on this island but it is a stopping point for many boaters making the trip south. It's the last sheltered area before you have to face the full force of the Atlantic so many boaters hang out in this cove until the weather is just right to make the passage. It could take a sailboat 10 hours if the winds are right to make this passage. If the weather is bad then it could get pretty ugly on the high seas with no where to hide. Charlie dropped anchor about 100 yards off shore and we settled in for another sunset. It was amazing to have only a few sailboats around you with nothing else for miles around. Quiet, dark and peaceful. Charlie, who knows someone where ever we went, had some friends that were waiting for passage come by Magic for a happy hour. It's interesting to hear how these people live on their boat for months at a time just sailing from island to island. They are RV'ers except on water. Let me back up a little. On our sail down to Lynyard Cay I found something out about Reta that I never knew. After 11 years of marriage I found out that I married a fisherman. She pulled out a pole, took the tackle box and hooked everything up and proceeded to fish off the back of the boat. Her first catch was seaweed but her second yielded a fish. Unfortunately this is a story about the one that got away. We saw this fish jumping out of water, fighting her, but the line snapped and the excitement was over.
The next morning after breakfast we put on our wetsuits and jumped into the water for our morning swim. A very large barracuda was interested in what we were doing and would follow us around. I found a huge conch and was surprised that it still had the "thing" in it. If you have never tried conch it is very tasty. You eat it raw. I don't know the technique to get them out of the shell so I took some pictures with the one I found and put him back. Eventually we set off and headed back north to try and drop anchor behind this tiny island to go snorkeling. The waves were pretty rough around Sandy Cay when we anchored but we jumped in the dinghy and went off to see if we could get close to the reef. We chickened out because the waves were so big and the dinghy was getting beat up. We headed back to Magic where the water was much calmer. The great thing about the Bahamas is that you can jump in the water where ever you are and you will find life. After a day of swimming and exploring we continued up north to our next destination and more fishing along the way.

Hopetown Harbor

Today we find ourselves in Naples Florida. We drove from Homestead yesterday across Alligator Alley. It's a stretch of road that runs East to West and is as straight as Elvis Presley and flat as Brooke Shields in Blue Lagoon. Nothing but swamps on both sides for as far as you can see.

We checked into this "Resort" and found out how the rich RV'ers live. This is truly a Resort. It has 3 swimming pools, exercise room, tennis courts, boccie ball, putting green and of course the resort favorite, shuffle board. It gets pretty competitive in the morning. We are only 7 miles from the beach but we haven't had a chance to check it out yet. Still running errands during the day. I took the Pickup out to a Goodyear place to get the oil changed today. The guy said it would take about 1 hour to 1 1/2. OK, I'll kill some time and walk around the shops and have lunch. After about 2 hours I went to pick up the truck and noticed that it looked like it hadn't even moved! I went in and the manager was like "It's all ready to go!" I said that it looked like its still in the same spot and the tires don't look like they have been rotated. He started to look for the ticket and several minutes later came out and said that the ticket had fallen out of the box and no one has worked on it yet. Can you believe that crap? Give me the keys and let me get the f#$% out of here! That's how my day has been. I went back to RH and took a nap. Tough day in the office for me.

WATER HAZARD - Hopetown Harbor
Our next destination in the Bahamas took us to Hopetown Harbor. It is the most photographed city in the Abaco's. You'll see why because of the harbor and the lighthouse. This is my favorite island that we visited. The little city is small so it seems you know everyone. The streets are very narrow so you can really only walk or if you take a golf cart you have to go pretty slow to make some of the turns. The houses are all colored differently and overlooking beautiful blue water that I am always talking about. The people are so friendly. They will stop and talk to you and if you're not careful they will tell you their whole life story. The second day, we went off to explore the light house. We found it and climbed the many, many, many stairs to the top. We were rewarded with a view that is hard to describe because of so many amazing sites. Water, boats, harbor, houses, sky...
I decided to be brave and open this little hatch that took you out on a small platform that encircled the top of the light house. To get through you had to literally get on your hands and knees. I got through and as I did my sunglasses fell off and landed on the platform. I had enough time to look at them sitting there until a big gust of wind took them right off the side. I swear I saw some Bahamian walking around with them. We took off on day 3 of Hopetown Harbor and left behind my sunglasses and a little paint from our hull. That is when Reta and I learned the importance of tides. Not a good idea to leave on low tide.
What an amazing place. I took many pictures there and I tried to select the best ones. Enjoy!